Page 12 of Archer's Awakening

“None. Everything’s on track. We did, however, get a visit from the city inspector.”

“That’s to be expected. He has to sign off on everything, right?”

“She does.”

Ouch. You know what they saying about assuming—

“But that wasn’t why she was out.”

“This doesn’t sound good.”

“She’s received a couple of noise complaints.”

“Seriously? Who’s complaining? The deer?”

Knight’s sketches of the house included some of the local wildlife. He’d omitted the racoons, but had included a herd of deer.

“Well, no. Yes, your property is isolated. Your neighbor to the south, though, is much closer than anyone else. He’s a great guy—”

“But he complained.”

A pause. Then, “He has the right to. This is on me. We were racing to get ahead of some bad weather moving in, and we put in some extra-long days.”

“How long?” I didn’t like hearing the crew was wearing themselves ragged for my sake.

“We showed up on a Sunday morning and started at seven instead of nine. This is on me. I know the rules, but we had good weather and a bit of daylight, so we got to work. We stayed after five as well.”

Her wince, although I couldn’t see it, was pretty clear.

“Okay. Well, that doesn’t sound horrendous. Were you using heavy machinery?”

“Mostly nail guns.”

“Seriously?” An office tower had been built across from my office about seven years ago.Thathad been noise. A few nail guns? “Okay. Did we get a ticket? I’m happy to pay it—”

“She threatened to shut us down.”

“What?”

“Bylaw enforcement takes noise violations seriously. We promised not to do it again, and I promise we’ve started five minutes late and ended five minutes early since.”

“Did that appease the guy?” Because, seriously, what was his problem?

“He came by yesterday, and I took the opportunity to apologize to him. He seems like a good guy. His name’s Gideon. His grandparents owned the property—”

“I don’t really care what his name is. Or who owned the property.” My chest was tingling, and the thought of more pain wasn’t pleasant. “If you think money will work…”

A long pause. Finally, “that’s not how we do things. That would, I promise, make it worse.”

Right.

Because not all problems can be solved with money.

“You apologized…?”

“Yes. And he said he understood. He’s got some medical—”

“So it’s resolved?” I needed peace and this wasn’t getting me there.

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